“Lavi se te glise.”
Translation: “Life is a slippery land. Meaning, life is unpredictable.”
I stumbled across this proverb and decided that it is quite possibly the best way to describe life in Haiti. It is very rare that anything happens how you thought it would.
The septic tank is full so we need to dig a new one. No problem right? You get one estimate. You pay to have the work done. Then they approach you with another estimate for more materials they forgot to tell you about the first time. Oh. Well. Okay, I guess…I mean it has to get done.
You go to buy school books for all the kids. After going to three different doors in the same building you finally find the office that sells the books. Now this is the source. The printing company that makes all textbooks for Haiti. You think ‘I give them my lists and pay and it will all be good’. Turns out they only have about half the books you need. You will need to come back another day hoping the missing texts will be in stock.
Motorcycles get flat tires mid-ride. Taptap taxis get flat tires halfway up the mountain. Stores are closed when you really needed to buy 2 weeks worth of food for 20+ people. Roads are closed when you really wanted to get to the airport on time.
When you are feeling your loneliest you are invited to join another missionary for a home cooked meal and English conversation. When you feel like what you’re teaching just isn’t sticking you overhear kids describing the weather in English to each other.
Life everywhere is unpredictable. In Haiti, the language and cultural differences just make that unpredictability a little more interesting. But one thing remains constant: all things work for God. Everything happens according to His will, even if we can’t even fathom what that might be. Going with God’s flow is a skill that I am still learning and trust me, Haiti helps me get better at that every day.
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